Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer (Twilight)

Brace yourself, Twilight fans. A new book fromStephenie Meyer is on the horizon.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella will be released at 12:01 a.m. June 5.

The 192-page story, an offshoot of the third novel in Meyer's best-selling teen vampire Twilight saga, has a first printing of 1.5 million. It's the first new Twilight title since Breaking Dawn, Book 4, was published two years ago.

The new novella is told in the voice of the teenage Bree, a "newborn vampire" whom we meet on page 569 in Eclipse. Ten pages later, she's dead.

"I started writing this a long time ago," Meyer said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. "It was when I was editing Eclipse. It was more of just an exercise so I could be clear about what was going on in the story."

The Twilight novels are told from the perspective of Bella, who falls in love with the vampire Edward Cullen.

"There's only so much stuff you can tell when what Bella sees and hears is all you can tell," Meyer says.

Bree is part of an army of newborn vampires created by Cullen family nemesis Victoria. Thirsty for revenge after the Cullens kill her vampire lover James, Victoria's plan is to use her army to kill the Cullens and Bella.

"The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is pretty much contained in the last week of the newborns' existence before the big fight (between the Cullens and the vampire army) in the meadow inEclipse," Meyer says. "It's the last week before Bree dies."

In the novella, Meyer says, Bree has been a vampire for about three months. No other details are being released.

But some plot points from the novella have made their way into the Eclipse film, starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, which opens June 30. Meyer gave David Slade, the film's director, a draft to read during production. The character of Bree is played by Canadian actress Jodelle Ferland.

Stephenie has a BUNCH of short stories, deleted scenes and character sketches on her Web site. I especially loved reading about Jacob! If you haven't looked at them yet...check them out! www.StephenieMeyer.com